Tsutomu Hata

Tsutomu Hata (24 August 1935-28 August 2017) was Prime Minister of Japan from 28 April to 30 June 1994, succeeding Morihiro Hosokawa and preceding Tomiichi Murayama. He was a member of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan until 1993, when he founded the neoconservative Japan Renewal Party.

Biography
Tsutomu Hata was born in Tokyo, Japan on 24 August 1935, a son of Liberal Democratic Party of Japan parliament member Bushiro Hata. He worked for the Odakyu bus company from 1958 to 1969 following his graduation from Seijo University, and he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1969. From 1985 to 1986 and from 1988 to 1989, he served as Agriculture Minister under Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita; he also served as Finance Minister from 1991 to 1992 and Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister from 1993 to 1994. In 1993, he formed the neoconservative Japan Renewal Party, and he became Prime Minister in 1994 when Hosokawa resigned. During his short term as Prime Minister, he instituted progressive healthcare reforms, but he resigned when the Social Democratic Party of Japan withdrew from his coalition government. In 2012, he finally retired from representing Nagano District 3 in the lower house, and he died in 2017 at the age of 82.